


Snowcats and Sleeping Bags

by agoodwoman



Series: The First Time [6]
Category: The X-Files, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)
Genre: F/M, Fight the Future, X files - Freeform, mulder/scully romance, x files romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:49:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How did they survive after the spaceship rose out of the ice and what happened before they made it back to DC? How did they survive in below zero temperatures? </p><p>"I was told once that the best way to regenerate body heat was to crawl naked into a sleeping bag with someone else who is already naked."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snowcats

The lowest recorded Antarctic temperature was taken at Vostok Station in July 1983 at -89.2C and when he took off on his rescue mission, the team at Casey Station reminded him of this. While he was actually looking at -18.4 C overnight, Mulder felt motivated if anything to get him and Scully back to The Red Shed.  
  
By the time he came to, the sky was blank and Scully’s hair was frozen against her face. Everywhere around them was white and the darkness was about to fall. If they didn’t move they might never get back to the vehicle.  
  
Her lips were starting to turn blue and he knew he needed to get them back to the snowcat. There was a radio, sleeping bag, tent and some supplies in there that could take them back to the Casey Station and, eventually, a flight home.  
  
It was during the mental list of things they had he realized the snowcat had one extra tank of gas in the back. Mulder felt he was an idiot or brilliant because it would be enough to take them back to the science station he landed at, flashing his badge and commendeering equipment.  
  
“Mulder, we need to move,” Scully said as she pulled her hands inside her jacket sleeves.  
  
Mulder reached into his fleece vest he had over his sweater and found a toque and gloves. He pulled the knit cap over her head and slowly put the gloves on her chilled hands. “Sorry I don’t have shoes for you.”  
  
“These socks are doing okay for now but I don’t know how far they’ll get me,” Scully shivered as she adjusted the hat around her head. “What about you?”  
  
Mulder reached into another pocket and found another pair of gloves thinner gloves. “I only brought one hat.”  
  
“We need to get moving Mulder. What...” Scully looked around. “How did you get out here?”  
  
“A few plane rides, a snowcat and a bit of walking,” Mulder sighed. He stood up and pulled her to stand. “I don’t think you can walk in those socks. Do you want a piggy back or something?”  
  
“Mulder,” she admonished but she was tempted. These socks weren’t going to take her up anywhere and they had about an hours trek at least.  
  
Mulder crouched a little. “Come on, second wind.”  
  
Reluctantly, she climbed on his back and gripped the material of his vest. “If you mention this to anyone...”  
  
“Who would believe me?” Mulder laughed and she chuffed at the realization.  
  
When they arrived back at OPR for reassignment and review, explaining what they were doing wasn’t going to be easy. It never was. She would have to get blood tests for herself, write reports of how she found herself out there and then somehow prove this was connected to getting back on the X-Files. She would make as many leaps as science could take her, for Mulder, to help prove that what happened was real. But to anyone else it sounded like science fiction, not stories based on fact.  
  
Mulder looked over his shoulder to where she was breathing heavily. “You okay back there, Scully?”  
  
“I’m fine,” she said automatically.  
  
Doing a mental assessment of her body and symptoms, she showed only signs of fatigue and reactions to the weather so it wasn’t a lie. After all, she was only in one layer of clothing and Mulder’s body heat was contained in his.  
  
“Well you should talk to me so I know you haven’t passed out again,” he told her as they trudged along the tundra. “Hey Scully, can you reach into my pocket and pull out the compass and coordinates.”  
  
“Which pocket?” she asked as they continued on.  
  
“My pants pocket,” Mulder told her and she made a noise. “It’s on the side, not the front. Don’t worry.”  
  
Scully felt down the side of his thigh as far as she could reach and touched what was probably the compass. Her hand slipped inside and fumbled a bit.  
  
“Do you need help?” he asked.  
  
“It’s hard with gloves on,” she muttered and pulled her hand up to her mouth to tug the glove off so she could take out the compass.  
  
He was keeping up a pretty good pace, all things considered, but when they arrived at the snowcat he would need food and water. They both would. Body heat is fueled by the metabolism and without food and water they would be in dire straights. Mulder was breathing heavily and she was hoping he would be able to make it as far as they needed to go because she wasn’t going to be able to return this favour.  
  
Compass and coordinates in hand, Scully looked at a scribbled note at the bottom.  
  
“We need to go east,” Mulder said and she pointed in an eastward direction.  
  
“This would have been easier with a GPS,” Scully pointed out.  
  
“I lost it while I was climbing through that thing,” Mulder mumbled and Scully realized pointing out the obvious right now was not advantageous.  
  
When they finally made it to the vehicle, what appeared to be an ordinary LMC Spryte was Valhalla to them. If Scully had ever been so glad to see an abandoned snowcat in her life, it was at this moment. It looked better than any five star motel room, any deep bubble bath or plush bed with five hundred thread count sheets. Her mind drifted off to a list of spa treatments she would splurge on when she got back to DC, however for now, that cab looked like salvation in a utilitarian vehicle.  
  
“There’s a stove, water, rations and a sleeping bag inside,” Mulder said as he set her down on the tire and watched her climb inside. She climbed over the console to the passenger side and Mulder climbed in after her. “I know they sent me with a back up gas tank somewhere.”  
  
He pulled the radio down from the overhead compartment inside the cab and turned it on. He waited for the radio to make any noise and he called out to the Casey Station.  
  
“Mayday, mayday, hello this is Agent Fox Mulder with the FBI, is anyone there?”  
  
The radio crackled and a man’s voice came on with a thick Australian accent. “Yes Agent Mulder this is Dr. Bennett, we caught seismic activity on our equipment from what read as an earthquake. Are you all right out there?”  
  
“We’re okay. We are trying to locate the back up gas tank,” Mulder told Dr. Bennet. “We’d like to head to you as soon as we can.”  
  
Scully climbed in the back of the snowcat where a small mattress, the sleeping bag and a duffle bag lay.  
  
“Agent Mulder you’ll need to park there overnight due to white out conditions slated for the next ten hours,” Dr Bennet advised.  
  
“You want us to camp out in it?” Mulder asked as he made eye contact with Scully.  
  
She looked less than thrilled.  
  
“Agent Mulder, I know it sounds crazy but staying put in the _*screech*_ storm, you’ll have a much better chance of surviving the night,” Dr. Bennet told them. “We can’t send anyone out let alone try for a rescue mission at this point. There’s a jerry can on the side of the snowcat to fill up. _*Screech!*_ wide sleeping bag in the back and a mattress. You’re best to idle overnight. There’s a battery operated heater that you can use for a few hours when the temperature really drops but a snowfall’s expected _*screech!*_ inexperienced driver like yourself needs to stay where you are.”  
  
“Dr Bennet we need medical attention,” Mulder protested.  
  
“I understand that Agent Mulder but I can’t risk more people on a rescue mission, that’s just the way we do things down here,” Dr Bennet replied. “Put in half the jerry can _*screeeech!*_ you should make it out unscathed. We can’t send anyone to you until the morning and I wouldn’t suggest you two try to drive the cat in this. We’ll check in with you at oh-six hundred.”  
  
The radio cracked and went silent. Mulder looked down at Scully as she held her jacket closer to her body and she wished Mulder had the presence of mind to grab her underwear from the abduction pod.  
  
Mulder opened the door of the cat and walked around toward the cargo hold as she looked around the back of the cab. There was a murphy bench that would fold up against the rear and a thin foam mattress across the floor. She pulled the bench down and realized quickly it would not be wide enough for either of them to sleep on. She rolled out the sleeping bag on the floor and pulled a few items from the duffle bag.  
  
Two pairs of men’s long johns, thermal underpants, a tank top, four pairs of socks and one fleece jacket. Scully looked outside the snowcat and saw Mulder moving around as he topped off the gas tank. She could get dressed if she hurried.  
  
Unzipping the down jacket he gave her, she pulled the tank top on over her head quickly and then a long sleeved thermal shirt. The grey waffle print material felt one hundred times better next to her skin and she was certain she had some abrasions on her back and arms she couldn’t see. She peeked out the window of the cab to see Mulder putting the cap back on the can and decided she would have to ask him to be a gentleman when he entered the cab again. Her wet socks were placed on the dash board of the vehicle next. She hung up her jacket from one of the overhead hooks behind her and waited in the back for Mulder to situate himself inside.  
  
“You found a shirt,” he noted as he looked around the back where she had created a bit of a nest.  
  
“I need to get these pants off,” Scully said and he turned around and placed one hand over his eyes.  
  
She felt ridiculous since they were in a dire situation and he had probably seen everything only hours before. This was different. There weren’t life forms springing out of pods trying to kill them and the propriety of where they were now should be maintained as long as possible.  
  
Scully slipped the thermal underwear on and, as the calf-length pants were meant for a man, she was happy she chose them because they came right to her ankles. She donned a new pair of socks and climbed over to the front seat where Mulder was trying to start the vehicle.  
  
“Thanks,” she said and handed him pair of socks. “Mulder, you should put these on, change out of your gear too.”  
  
After Mulder had changed, they took out their rations and water, decided how to divide up what they needed and Scully made an overnight schedule. Mulder eventually asked her if she took an Arctic winter skills survival course without him.  
  
“When I was in the hospital receiving my chemo, you’re sitting there with IL2 going into your veins and sucking on popsicles. Eventually you start reading magazines to take your mind off what’s going on,” Scully told him. “There was an Outdoorsman publication and I read three issues on my second to last treatment before you went up to find your fake alien.”  
  
Mulder held up his finger. “There’s no proof that alien was fake.”  
  
“Did it look like the aliens you said you saw on the-” Scully held up her fingers for air quotations. “Space ship?”  
  
Mulder did air quotes as well. “Space ship? Scully, it was a space ship.”  
  
“Mulder what did the doctor say about your head wound?” she asked reaching out to the now scabbed patch of hair on his head.  
  
“I should resist strenuous activity such as hauling someone bigger than a lunch pail up a giant ladder while rescuing them from space ships,” he said and climbed into the back of the cab.  
  
He handed her his pants and she hung them on the hook next to hers at the window where the heat was blowing up and out, delightfully filling the cab with more tolerable air. Scully watched outside the window as the snow began to fall and she reached for where her necklace normally was to pray silently for their survival.  
  
He joined her up front again and put his arm awkwardly across his lap.  
  
“Oh!” he said suddenly and reached across her to where his pants where hanging. He pulled out the necklace from inside one of his pockets and smiled almost shyly as he held it up.  
  
Instinctively Scully reached across the cab and hugged her arms around his neck in a display of emotion Mulder was unaccustomed to. She kissed his cheek and took the necklace from him.  
  
“I was really annoyed you didn’t take my underpants,” she confessed with a shake of her head. “I’m not anymore.”  
  
Mulder’s face lit up in delight and she shook her head as he laughed at their situation. “I’m glad you’re not miffed with me.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” she said as she put the necklace on again.  
  
“Can we eat now?” Mulder asked as he adjusted the crotch on his thermal underwear.  
  
He had a feeling he was going to pop out at some point in the evening and they would have another ‘Scully saw Mulder’s manhood’ moment to live through. It happened twice or more before but at least now he had one more ‘Mulder saw Scully naked’ moment to add to his list.  
  
Best not to think about that while wearing long johns.  
  
They both drank some of the water and ate a “Soldier Fuel” energy bar that advertised real peanut butter. As they chewed in silence, Mulder checked his watch for the time. The sun never rose at this time of year and the constant darkness played tricks on those who lived here during the Arctic winter months. He set an alarm for two hours from now to turn the motor off, boil snow outside and turn the space heater on.  
  
Outside, the snow pelted at the snowcat and piled up on the hood of the engine. Mulder listened to it sputter as it idled while he tried not to think of their situation as being too acute. They could make it to morning. It was ten pm now, only eight hours to go, and they could make it.  
  
“What was that?” Scully asked as she held her face over one of the heaters to dry her hair out.  
  
It was curling around her face and Mulder realized that part of Scully’s daily ritual was to straighten out those curls every morning. Camping in a snowcat would be a very enlightening experience for both of them.  
  
“I didn’t say anything,” he replied as he watched her.  
  
“We’ll be fine,” Scully assured him but she was more talking to herself at this point.  
  
Her lips weren’t as blue anymore but she was still feeling chilled. If everything could dry out she might find some solace in extra layers. What she really needed and she was almost afraid to ask for was to generate some body heat.  
  
“Do you want to lie down?” Mulder offered and she nodded as she shivered. “With me?”  
  
She hesitated for a moment but nodded again. She watched his body climb between the seats to the back of the cab and into the sleeping bag. Pulling the duffle bag underneath as a makeshift pillow, she caught his reflection as he looked up at her with honest eyes.  
  
“Come on Scully,” Mulder invited as he opened the edge for her. “It’s not exactly raining sleeping bags and it will be more PG than your last parking date but I promise I’m an excellent conversationalist.”  
  
Scully chuffed in laughter and climbed in with her backside against him. The sleeping bag Mulder found at Casey Station with was not the one-man tube that most climbers used and fortunately that meant there was a bit of breathing room for them.  
  
Scully turned her body around and slipped her arm under his. Mulder pressed his face into her hair and kissed the top of her head. She still felt cool to his lips and she hummed at the contact.  
  
“That feels nice,” she admitted.  
  
“Are you going to be warm enough?” he asked her.  
  
“I’m not at the need to be naked stage of freezing yet,” she told him and his mind lingered on the word yet in her statement. She pressed the back of her hand into his forehead and then against her own. “I can’t tell if my temperature is elevated.”  
  
Mulder mimicked her action and looked into her eyes from where they lay. He praised every deity he could think of that his body was not reacting as it might have in his early adolescence and realized survival was paramount, not some release. He rubbed his hands up and down her back which helped them both.  
  
“That’s good,” she nodded and tucked her head under his chin while maneuvering her body closer to his.  
  
Mulder continued to rub his hands up and down and tried not to falter in his pattern when she began to do the same. Her breath was hot on his throat and he tried to concentrate on images of the alien chasing him out of the tube to keep his hormones in check. It was barely working.  
  
“Can we take a break?” Mulder said as he cleared his throat.  
  
“Mulder, a man’s physiological response to a situation like this is, in itself, perfectly natural,” Scully admonished.  
  
He reached between them and adjusted his slightly swollen member. It wasn’t a full mast but there was some definite blood flowing down there. He cleared his throat. “It really must be a luxury to be a woman.”  
  
“You can pee standing up,” Scully pointed out. “That has to far outweigh the off chance you have an involuntary erection when you’re in a forced situation such as this.”  
  
“Scully, I really don’t want to be a creep or make you feel uncomfortable right now, but if we weren’t in the back of a snowcat and trying to conserve body heat, I might still react this way while lying next to you,” Mulder pointed out.  
  
Scully thought on that point for a moment and her mind wandered to moments of possibility if the bee hadn’t stung her. Was it two days ago he first thought to do that or was that just his first “fuck it” moment where he could have thrown all caution to the wind and risked what they have to introduce a romantic element?   
  
“Oh.” The thought lingered in the air as she contemplated his statement.  
  
“You can have multiple orgasms,” he said suddenly. “If we’re discussing the benefits between the sexes.”  
  
“That’s true,” she sighed. “But you could also.”  
  
Mulder thought about that. In his teen years he was cursed and blessed with the ability to go again a few minutes after ejaculating. That time had expanded slightly now that he was in his 30s but not by much. Visions of taking Scully in multiple positions danced through his head.  
  
“Maybe we should talk about something else.”  
  
“What do you want to talk about?” Scully asked.  
  
Mulder’s watch alarm went off and he untangled himself from her to turn it off. “We need to save gas. I’m going to turn the engine off and set up that heater.”  
  
Mulder climbed on top of her to get out of the sleeping bag while she maneuvered herself so she was underneath and eventually to his side of the bag. He climbed to the front and felt anxiety when the cat shut off with the same noise as when it ran out of gas before. He wondered for a moment if he should start it again just to ensure it could but he knew that starting an engine wasted more gas than allowing it to idle.  
  
In the front seat, he found the space heater and set it on the console between the two seats and turned it on. The small convector wouldn’t turn past #6 without making an awful noise. At half-power, the thing pushed out little heat but it was better than nothing.  
  
  
****  
  
  
It was now midnight and the temperatures were dropping. The sound of the wind outside was a high pitched howling and the snow was building up along the ledges of the windows. If there wasn’t a snowstorm or Mulder had the presence of mind to take a snowcat with a full tank of gas, they might not be in this situation. If they hadn’t been chased by those bees and he was able to kiss her, he might have been able to convince her to stay.  
  
Then what?  
  
Mulder crawled back into the sleeping bag with his petite partner who was shivering again. He took his long sleeved shirt off and lied down next to her while Scully contemplated taking off hers.  
  
The rational thought that it was for the very purpose of creating body heat and, therefore, a necessary requirement. She pulled her own long sleeved shirt over her head, keeping her tank top on while she snuggled closer to Mulder.  
  
“Your hair is dry now,” Mulder noted as he ran his hand down the back of her head and she nodded into his chest. He placed his other hand on her back and slipped it up under her tank top. The skin on her back was cool also and he was unaware of what to do beyond basic CPR for her.

Her body vibrated against his. "Cold."  
  
“Scully you need to tell me what I need to do or watch for if you get too cold,” he urged her.  
  
“Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries even when the surrounding temperature is very different,” Scully recited as her teeth chattered. “Bergmann’s Rule states that increasing body size to more easily maintain core body temperature-”  
  
Mulder cut Scully off from reciting what she probably had read in a science journal with his mouth on hers. Her hands splayed out between them as to push him away but her lips parted to his as he began to kiss her. A tongue darted from her mouth to his and his arm pulled her body flush to his.  
  
Her hands moved up to his hair, threading in the strands at the base of his neck as she pulled him closer to her. The amount of heat one kiss was generating was promising and Mulder felt half disappointed and half relieved that they wouldn’t need to have sex to survive this night. If he was being honest, as her tongue slid against his again and her plump lips warmed under his touch, he was maybe ten per cent relieved and the rest of him was feeling more than mildly disenchanted at that reality.  
  
The kiss broke and Scully looked up into his eyes to see a reckless abandon she had only seen on his face before doing something rash.  
  
“I feel a little warmer,” she breathed.  
  
Mulder nodded. “I don’t know what else to do.”  
  
“It’s okay,” she said. “That was fine.”  
  
“Fine?” he repeated with a smile. They were still pressed against one another and he was happy they were ignoring the elephant in the room which was his full mast erection lying between them. “Just fine?”  
  
“I think as far as first kisses for survival purposes in snowcats in Antarctica goes, it was much more than satisfactory Mulder,” Scully replied and rolled her eyes as she fought a smile. “I just know it’s not really...”  
  
“Scully don’t say I’m being forced or something,” Mulder cut her off. “Or if you feel-”  
  
“I’m not either,” she assured him. “I mean, we need to make it out of here...”  
  
  
He watched her face and saw the fear and hesitation she expressed in his hallway. Maybe she should get as far away from him. Maybe she didn’t want him in this way at all. Perhaps for Scully’s peace of mind, they would do this all under the guise of survival.  
  
He thought back to comments she had made over the last year, gestures she had put out to Mulder she might be open to more of their relationship but he was trying to assess now if that was a moment of “Thank God I didn’t die, maybe I’ll do something reckless like spend more of my downtime with Mulder.”  
  
“Mulder?” her voice waivered. “Can we just try to make it through tonight without dissecting it? I just.. I think we need to be impartial to what's happening here.”  
  
The emotional side of Mulder didn’t know if he could tolerate that however the relief he felt in the fact that he managed to save her from the fate a small bee sting was about to put on her outweighed that. He could give into that emotionally stunted side of her and not face the sentiment of what they were doing. He wouldn’t lie that it stung just a little bit.  
  
“Mulder?” Scully prompted again. Her finger tips traveled between them down to his waistband of his pants.  
  
“I’m just thinking, Scully,” he confessed.  
  
“I thought we weren’t going to do that,” she replied as she pulled her hands back towards her.  
  
"I don't know how impartial I can be," he confessed. He took her hands in his and pressed them against his mouth. “You’re cold.”  
  
“I am cold,” she agreed.  
  
“I just don’t know how to do this without enjoying it a little,” he admitted.  
  
“I know the sentiment,” she agreed. "But I just don't want to make statements in the back of a snowcat we can't follow through on."  
  
Mulder kissed her again and rolled her so she was more fully underneath him. Her thighs opened to allow him to rest between the V of her body and he tried not to mind that her hands were grabbing at his flesh. How much touching constitutes for survival and how much is considered beyond that boundary? Where does the line draw? How much was he allowed to do as a way of finally tasting and touching what was off limits for so long? How much could she allow under the cloak of durability to make it to the morning?  
  
Fervent kisses lead to a few soft moans and when she pulled her face away for air Mulder couldn’t help but kiss along her jawline, down her neck and to her collarbone. Scully rotated her hips into Mulder’s and he moaned into her skin before nipping at the skin on her shoulder. He repeated the action and his hand instinctively grabbed at her breast over the cotton material.  
  
She moaned and he repeated her action, grinding his hips into hers and she cried out. If they continued this movement they might both embarrass themselves as they relived a “parking” experience of their youth. Dry humping in a snowcat was slightly more comfortable and she wasn’t worried the school would find out she let Bobby McAteer get to second base but he didn’t kiss half as well as Mulder. Bobby didn’t know what to do with her breasts while Mulder massaged and pinched at her nipples. And the young Mr. McAteer was much more interested in what Dana was willing to do for him in the end than what he could do for her. Scully had a feeling Mulder might be more a giver than the reciever when it came to foreplay but she almost hoped he was 50/50.  
  
Her mind realized the dangerous territory it was treading on, thinking of this as more than just survival sex and an act of passion between potential lovers.  
  
Abruptly, Mulder stopped kissing her and took his hand off her breast.  
  
“I need to slow down,” he breathed and moved onto his back.  
  
Scully sat up in the sleeping bag and pressed her hand to his head as she began to ask him a list of questions common for concussion patients. “Are you feeling dizzy or seeing stars? Any ringing in your ears, confusion or nausea?  
  
“Yes, no, yes and no,” Mulder reported.  
  
“You feel dizzy?” she asked.  
  
“Scully, it’s not the head wound. It’s you,” Mulder assured her as he took her hand in his.  
  
Her cheeks went from being flushed from sexual arousal to embarrassment. “Oh.”  
  
They both glanced down to the area of the sleeping bag where Mulder’s erection was tenting the material.  
  
“This is messy,” he said referring to sex and relationships.  
  
“Usually,” she agreed.  
  
“I don’t have anything...” his voice drifted off as he implied there were no prophylactics packed away in his duffle. “Actually...”  
  
Mulder sat up and pulled the long bag onto his lap. He reached into the inside pocket of the duffle bag and pulled out a pack of six condoms.  
  
“What... Why do you have those?” Scully asked as Mulder put the duffle back under the head of the sleeping bag and left the condoms on his lap.  
  
Her mind drifted to scenarios that he would want or need them for encounters with other women. She really was daft when it came to his intentions at times.  
  
They were both sitting up in the snowcat and Mulder leaned his body against the door with the string of foiled packets between his hands. “I think I put them in there after our little Florida detour.”  
  
Her eyes widened and she ran her tongue along her top lip. “Oh.”  
  
“You made that comment and I didn’t want to be unprepared if the opportunity...” he said with a sheepish grin.  
  
“I see,” she said. “So the other day in the hallway...”  
  
“Not the first time I thought about kissing you,” he confessed, “or other things for that matter.”  
  
“We’re talking a lot about this again,” she pointed out as she studied her hands. She took a long breath and put a hand on his knee. “I don’t really want to overthink or dissect our situation, Mulder. I know that we will have to work together after this night and right now, fratnerizing among male and female partners is grounds for reprimand. I know you don’t care about that but you do want the X-Files back.”  
  
“I do,” he agreed. “So...”  
  
“I’m not going to get in the way of that,” she said. “Whatever happens tonight we can leave out from any report you have to file when we get back.”  
  
“I wouldn’t dream of putting any sort of detail from a few hours ago to now in a report,” he scoffed.  
  
“I’m not explaining myself very well,” she said with a shake of her head.  
  
These conversations were exactly the ones Dana Scully liked to avoid. She liked things tidy with answers that were simple. She liked to deduce reasoning and discover the science. The emotional entanglements of a working relationship, the messiness that accompanied it were ones she tried to avoid. With Daniel, he had a family and a wife and her quick escape to the FBI proved to be the easiest answer. Jack was too complicated and tense. She was young and wanted something low maintenence however she found herself worrying about his swinging emotional state more often than not. Ethan was easy until his plans got in the way of her career. Ultimately, she wanted a partner and he wanted a wife. That and a lack of passion made for bad bed fellows.  
  
She looked at Mulder and realized he would be a messy affair. Every relationship ended when they took up too much of her life and yet Mulder had already taken over hers. The X-Files, his passion for the truth and his goals became hers yet not out of some girlish loyalty but because of everything that had happened to her along the way.  
  
The question remained, if they had sex tonight out of necessity, could they move past and still be partners?  
  
Scully wasn’t a typical woman who fell eternally in love with every man she went to bed with however she didn’t sleep with that many men. Mulder wasn’t a fan of relationships or casual sex at this point because women always demanded more of himself than he was willing to give. Until he found his sister, until he brought the men to justice who hurt Scully and until there was a bullet in CSM’s head, he didn’t have Friday night’s free to argue over what restaurant they would go to or what movie to watch.  
  
Maybe what he liked about Scully is she wasn’t the kind of woman who demanded flowers but appreciated them all the same. She liked to eat take out while pouring over cases they could look into next. She drank beer from a bottle but also appreciated a good red wine and she found as much excitement in challenging theories as he did.  
  
What brought them together would be the thing that could pull them apart. Maybe when they got back to DC he should encourage her to get away from him. The biggest threat to Scully has always been his involvement in her life.  
  
“Mulder?” she prompted.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Can we just try to survive tonight?” she asked again and he nodded. If it meant they were together or not tomorrow or down the road, they did have to get themselves back to DC and on an assigment that didn’t bore Mulder. “We have a lot of work we need to accomplish. We need to get the X-Files reopened and find the truth.”  
  
“You told me once that you’ve heard the truth and what you wanted were answers,” he said. “I feel that’s where I’m at.”  
  
Scully nodded. She hoped with all hopes it could just be this, survival and detachment of who they were to what needed to get them six hours from now. She wouldn’t think about the fact that Mulder had planned or hoped for a situation to arise where he would need six condoms in a carry on at all times. They both understood a sexual encounter between them wouldn’t result in a child and further to that point, he had thought about situations where the mess of a coupling could be contained inside one rubber case in a foiled packet.  
  
The radio crackled as a woman’s voice called to them.  
  
“Agent Mulder?”  
  
Mulder stood up behind the front seat and reached over to the radio on the ceiling. His back was slightly marked from her fingernails during their recent activities and she put a hand across her mouth.  
  
“Yes, hello?”  
  
“This is Dr. Jones-Nguyen. I wanted to check in how things were going out there,” she asked.  
  
“We’re doing okay, Doctor,” Mulder radioed back.  
  
“We just checked the weather report and we’ll call back at six am but you’re still best to stay put,” she advised.  
  
“Thank you,” Mulder grumbled and hung the radio up.  
  
“We’re not trying to flick you,” Dr. Jones-Nguyen assured them. “Keep your grundies dry and watch for us at first light. Over and out.”  
  
They laid down in the in the sleeping bag and she looked up at Mulder. His phone beeped at the sound that another two hours had gone by.  
  
“We could idle the engine for a couple of hours and try to get some sleep?” Mulder suggested.  
  
Scully nodded and watched as he donned his shirt again and turned off the space heater. He set it in the passenger seat and climbed over to the front. The cat hesitated to start, it grumbled noisily. What he worried about was the engine freezing or flooding it the next time he tried to start it.  
  
When he came back to the bed, Scully handed him half of the protein bar she was eating and he quickly consumed the ration. She handed him her water bottle and he drank what was left in there. There were three more water bottles up front with the rest of their food. They just needed to make it another four hours. If they slept two, maybe things wouldn’t get to the point where sex was a forced option. If he was being honest with himself, sex under this kind of situation wasn’t how Mulder had hoped it would happen but almost assumed it would. They had been stranded and saved so many times it was as though the universe was showing them all the ways they could but wouldn’t get together.  
  
He set another alarm on his phone and took his shirt off again for Scully to warm up to him. Her body stretched out on top of his and they quickly found sleep with the sound of an Arctic storm swirling around them. 


	2. Sleeping Bags

When Scully came to at four am, Mulder's watch was beeping and he was snoring soundly underneath her. The air was chilled outside of the bag and she knew she needed to turn the snowcat off to preserve gas. It was then that the engine died again and she cursed loudly.  
  
Mulder awoke with a start. "Ah, Jesus! What!?"  
  
"I think the engine just died," she said as she sat up.   
  
She found her long sleeved shirt next to her body and put it on before climbing to the front seat. She tried to turn the engine over, the fuel guage said there was a quarter tank left, however nothing was moving. Mulder moved the space heater to the dashboard and sat in the passenger seat.   
  
"So," he said running a hand across his face.  
  
"We have two hours," Scully said. "Two hours and a few problems."  
  
"Let's go through the problems," Mulder suggested.  
  
Scully made a pained face and sighed. "I need the bathroom."  
  
Mulder laughed. "Okay.... Well... I can dig a little hole out there and offer you some privacy if you like."  
  
Scully shivered in her seat at the thought. Being a man with an inability to hide your arousal suddenly seemed much more appealing than all the benefits of multiple releases during sex. Almost.   
  
Mulder donned the one pair of snowpants, his boots, jacket, gloves and took the hat Scully had worn before to brave the outside and dig a small biffy for Scully. She almost found the gesture romantic if it wasn't so abborhent to pee squatting in the snow. She had gone camping in her youth. She could maneuver her way around outside but she wasn't looking forward to practicing this skill.   
  
When he came back in he handed her his boots, jacket and pointed to her pants. "I think I made a path so you won't need the snowpants but I wouldn't linger out there if I were you." he said.  
  
Scully shook her head and geared up.   
  
"Oh and if you see my name written out there, it was just to test things out," Mulder called after her.   
  
When she found herself back inside she saw Mulder playing with the space heater on the dash. The cab was surprisingly warm and she shed her jacket and boots again.   
  
"Any other problems?" Mulder asked.  
  
"Just conserving body heat and potentially running out of food. Is this all everything?" she asked with a shiver as she pointed to the bags of vacuum sealed options.   
  
Mulder scooted over in the seat and patted the small space next to him. He jerked his head to the side in an inviting nod. "Come here."  
  
It didn't take much convincing to warm herself again with the body heat he was generating. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but definitely warmer than sitting across from him.   
  
"The only food we have left is ready to eat," Mulder started as he pulled out the ration bag from near his feet and set it on her lap. His left arm was around her shoulders and his other was thumbing through what was available. "Protein bars, dried fruit, nuts and this looks like some kind of paste."  
  
Scully opened the bag of nuts and fruit and they devoured them silently. The only sound was chewing as they sat under the small blast of warm air the space heater was producing from its place on the dashboard. They finished one bottle of water between them and Mulder cracked the second one that sat in the console.  
  
"Well it's not exactly a date but there's food, a great view and good company," Mulder joked and took a swig of water.  
  
Scully looked out the window to her right and up to him. "Better than the last date I had."  
  
"Jerse?" Mulder guessed and she nodded.   
  
Mulder thought about asking about it but he didn't feel like lingering on that too much. He got the basics from the police that arrived at Jerse's door in the morning and from Scully's report.   
  
"My last date thought she was a vampire," Mulder said sadly as he set the water bottle down and there was a beat of silence before they began laughing.   
  
It turned from a moment of lighthearted humour to a moment of crackling tension. Mulder saw her smiling with her hair curling around her face and felt such a sense of relief he was there with her. In a moment they were kissing and while they could argue in their minds it was survival induced, they knew deep down they were both enjoying it far too much. His hands were in her hair and she was opening her mouth to him. He was maneuvering her onto his lap and moving his hips forward while she was grinding her bottom into his lap. It was delightful and wonderous and completely unexpected, which is what Mulder appreciated most of all.   
  
His hands reached up under her undershirt and found the heated skin of her breast. Without breaking the kiss and she pressed her centre into the swollen member between them. Whatever was fueling these kisses, neither wanted to dwell on it too long. It was just enough to keep either of them from wondering what this all meant and just release the emotions to physically express what they were feeling for each other.   
  
It was becoming hurried and frantic inside the cab and whatever reservations they had were thrown out the window and into the storm outside.   
  
It was after four am and almost to the finish line of surviving this night. They could stop at any moment if either of them found a clear headspace.   
  
Mulder kissed his way down her jawline to taste her skin. Whatever residue remained from the liquid inside the pod Scully was in had disappated. She tasted salty and smelled earthy like after a long day of working. Mulder sunk his teeth onto the hollow part at her collar bone and she moaned. She continued to rub herself along his member and the wetness from her sex was soaking through the long underwear she had donned to stay warm.   
  
In a move of bravado, he reached between them and slipped his fingers through the fly of her pants as she pressed herself into his hand.   
  
"Scully, you're so..." Mulder started.   
  
She looked at him with hooded eyes. There was a passion and desire there. A finger slipped into the tight cavern of her sex and they both moaned. In the aftermath of this event, they would have a lot to discuss or perhaps they would perform the ultimate act of denial and pretend this all never happened. They would go back to looking at one another in longing and studying the other in hopes they could get back to this point.   
  
She reached between them and took his shaft in her hand. His eyes closed as he breathed out in desire.   
  
It was the wound on his forehead, the crucial situation of barely making out of this by the skin of their teeth and the fact that he was finally feeling her hands on him that was making him lightheaded.   
  
Being with her was something he had desired for six years since she walked into his office and shot down his theories of illogical beings traveling from the outermost reaches of the galaxy to visit Earth. He had wanted her then but out of a hormonal desire to flirt her into seeing his point of view. Then he learned to trust her and he craved her on a different level. While their work could be complicated, their friendship was so simple in the early years, and the self-destructive part of him wanted to muddy the waters with something else.   
  
"Mulder," she sighed as she stroked up and down.  
  
A dexterous thumb circled her clitoris and a squeak escaped her lips.   
  
"Yes?" he answered.   
  
This was clearly not becoming sex for survival but they would not point that out to one another as they fumbled their way beautifully through foreplay.   
  
"I think you need to lie down," she suggested.  
  
Mulder opened his eyes and studied her flushed face while his hand stilled its movements. "I do?"  
  
"You do," she said and glanced down at his swollen cock in her hand.   
  
Mulder's face lit up in realization at the inferrence.   
  
"I really think I need to lie down," he agreed and followed her into the back of the cab.   
  
The hard floor of the cat might be masked by a small foam matress but not well. There was an awkwardness to undressing on the floor of a utilitarian vehicle. Pants came off, shirts removed and they lied down next to one another with socked feet rubbing against one another. She looked into his eyes and they shared a smile before hormones took over again.   
  
The snowcat width was just short enough for Mulder to fully stretch out. His feet crossed over to her side of the sleeping bag for him to lay comfortably which was fine by her since her leg was hooked around his waist as they began to build up toward the need to be joined as one.  
  
With surprising dexterity, Scully tore the edge of the condom open with her teeth and slipped the sheathe over his long, thick member.   
  
"I'm trying not to feel distracted by how well you did that," Mulder muttered as he positioned himself at her entrance.   
  
As they lay facing one another, with her bottom leg pressed against him and her top leg hooked over his hip, Mulder slid slowly inside. The size of him stretching her walls , she hissed at the intrusion.   
  
"Are you okay?" he asked as he was halfway inside.  
  
Scully swallowed and let out a long breath. He had watched her do these mental preparations before climbing down long ladders into 120 year old mutant lairs, running after suspects with a gun drawn or charging into battle because Mulder had a hunch.   
  
"Scully?" he prompted.  
  
She nodded and he kissed her again. Her walls began to relax and he slid in the rest of the way with the head of his cock pushing against her cervix. There would be more reasons to be sore when they arrived back to DC.   
  
It was the movements of a low simmering, passionate embrace with his pelvis hitting the right spots to work her into a release. Perhaps it was because it was their first time, what they had just endured or the fact that she was in a continual state of arousal but her orgasm built quicker than it ever had. Mostly, she suspected, it was because it was him doing this to her.   
  
They watched one another's faces as the small movements of their hips began to create a fever build between them. Cheeks flushed, pupils dilated and a thin layer of sweat began to coat their bodies. Mulder tried not to lose himself in the experience of finally being inside her and tried to focus on how it felt for her to hold him in this way. It was more than just the friction of their bodies as her hips moved against his, it was the lovers embrace they held one another as her leg held his body to hers and fingernails gripped at his back.  
  
His mind went to scenarios he would have preferred had it not been for the need to generate head. If he was going to have Scully, he wanted to be able to taste every inch of her and his mouth instinctively reached for hers as she panted in his arms.   
  
Their mouths moved in unison to their bodies and she moaned as his hands gripped at her ass.   
  
"I wanted so much more than this," he said when the kiss broke. "I wanted all of you, Scully. I wanted to taste you everywhere."  
  
That information was enough to send her over the edge. Her hands clawed at his back and she cried out as the contraction of her internal muscles began. Neurons fired inside her, she felt as though she saw stars and was soaring at the same time. He watched in awe as she exploded around him in ectasty.   
  
They lay panting for a moment as her body calmed down and she felt relieved Mulder had the courtesy to allow her to experience her orgasm without interruption or pushing for his own. Selfishly, he wanted to see it all as she experienced it. If they would only have this time together, if other obstacles would only get in the way of them finding one another again, Mulder wanted to know what a Dana Scully orgasm truly looked like. His memory would stow that piece of information away for all future masturbatory practices.   
  
Scully pushed Mulder onto his back and sunk down onto his member again, spreading her body across his. The blanket was pulled around them, keeping their created heat close by. Her hands went on either side of his head and she began to move her pelvis in small but purposeful strokes up and down. Mulder bent his knees slightly and Scully pressed her feet on top of his for leverage.   
  
"As a doctor do you recommend this position to reduce stress on a patient?" Mulder asked and he kissed along her chest.   
  
"Yes," she murmured.   
  
Scully watched as he took time with each breast, sucking and kissing each soft mound. Her hips continued their movements and Mulder's hands gripped at her hips as she worked him up to his own release. Her body felt the build of another orgasm and the swelling of her sex as it approached.  
  
"I can feel you Scully," he whispered as she rode him. "You're going to come again."  
  
She cried out and her body clenched around him. The strong convulsions evinced his own surrender to pleasure and he shouted her name. She lay on top of him as their progression from ectasy fizzled down to tingling aftershocks of serenity.  
  
Mulder reached between them and held onto his member as she unmounted and lied down next to him inside the sleeping bag.   
  
How was he supposed to work along side her and know she could rotate her pelvis in such a way? Did he always suspect that she was lithe and fluid in bed or was his assumption she would be stiff and rigid? He had hoped for this kind of passion and intestity. He suspected the only way to be around her if he couldn't touch her again was to be a complete ass. He knew how to do that.   
  
"Did you think about something like this happening in Florida?" she asked.   
  
"Scully, I think it's safe to say since you made that sleeping bags comment I thought about little else," he said as he tied off the end of the condom and placed it on the floor next to him. "I should confess, though, that the likelihood Florida was the first time that thought crossed my mind is pretty slim. I might have focused persuits but I'm a man. It didn't change the way I respected you or looked at you as an agent."  
  
Scully let that statement wash over her.  
  
"I shouldn't have said anything," he said as he rubbed a hand across his face.  
  
"I think it's safe to say I'm not immune to that thought process, Mulder," she said lightly. "In regards to you or us."  
  
Mulder pushed his lower lip out in thought at her own statement. Naturally his inclination would be to hold a woman after they had been together but this wasn't supposed to be that. Did survival sex included cuddling afterwards under the veil of conserving body heat?   
  
Scully picked up her shirt and held it to her chest and he could see the battle of what to do next go on inside her mind. She was trying to decide that also. It became apparent neither of them were able to have a discussion surrounding pillowtalk being acceptable so Mulder took the shirt from her hands and pulled her down to his chest again. She brought the edge of the sleeping bag up around her face and sighed.   
  
The storm would break eventually and they resided in the solace of enjoying their post-coitus moment.   
  
*******  
  
A knocking on the outside door awoke Mulder first and he waved at the masked person who stood on the tires of the snowcat.   
  
"Agent Muldah!" a voice called to them. "We're here to escort you back to camp!"  
  
Scully's eyes opened and her fight or flight reflexes shouted for flight. Mulder gave a thumbs up to the rescuer and put on his shirt while Scully hid inside the bag.   
  
"One second!" Mulder called and the masked individual gave Mulder another thumbs up.   
  
It took only a few moments for Mulder to dress in long johns, the one pair of snowpants, shirt and jacket while Scully pulled on her own set of pants and shirt. She found Mulder's sweater and vest and pulled them on, trying not to think of how she felt like a girl who stole her boyfriend's clothing and needing the items for decorum. A previously discarded condom full of Mulder's semen was wrapped in a piece of paper then tucked inside his pants pocket. He opened the door as Scully was folding up the sleeping bag.  
  
"Hello," Mulder greeted.  
  
"I've got a jerry can of gas to top you up and you can follow behind me back to Casey Station," a woman's voice told them under goggles, a face mask and hodded jacket.   
  
Mulder donned his toque and gloves before exiting the cat. He took the can from the woman and chatted briefly as the tank filled up.  
  
The woman, who's jacket said Jones-Nguyen, popped her head inside the snowcat Scully was sitting in, drinking water and feeling embarrassed. The doctor sat in the drivers seat and looked around the cab.   
  
"Sorry to sneak up on you. We radioed at oh-six-hundred but there was no answer," Dr. Jones-Nguyen explained as she took off her mask and goggles. The woman was maybe forty-five with short black hair and sunkissed skin. "How are you feeling, Agent Scully? There are some worried people in the states asking about you and your partner."  
  
"Fatigued from not much sleep and hungry but otherwise my vitals seem to be normal," Scully reported.   
  
"When we get back to the station I'll do a physical just to clear you for travel and we can work on getting you and your partner back to civilization," she told her as she reached to Scully's throat to take a pulse. She looked at her watch and did the mental tally of a regular heartbeat. "You have some abrasions on your face and chin from the weather we could treat also."  
  
Scully wondered for a moment if Jones-Nguyen would discuss what she witnessed when they got back to camp with anyone else. It was hard to know where the sisterhood of solidarity lay when it came to protecting reputations or tarnishing them. Would Scully be looked at by their rescuer as just another woman who fell into bed with a man who saved her?  
  
"My partner and I weren't-"  
  
"Agent, you don't report to me so don't tell me tales out of school," Jones-Nguyen cut her off. "You know I saw you when I looked in on you but it's not my business to tell. I assure you, it's not the business of anyone I work with."  
  
Scully visibily relaxed and she smiled gratefully. "Thank you."  
  
"Let's get you back to base," the doctor encouraged.   
  
It was a forty minute drive and Mulder hummed quietly as he drove behind the rescue cat. Scully sat with her hands in her lap and mentally worked through the list of excuses she could give Mulder for their behaviour that morning.   
  
The giant red living quarters is what Scully spotted first. There was a team exiting the building in full snow gear to escort them inside.  
  
Mulder parked his snowcat behind Dr. Jones-Nguyen and gathered his duffle bag from the back of the cat while a member of the team helped Scully out of her side of the snow cat and covered her shoulders with a blanket to protect her from the wind.   
  
"She doesn't have shoes," Mulder told them obviously.   
  
Two of the team members helped Scully get into the building and Mulder soon followed her inside where Dr. Bennet was waiting for them.   
  
"Agent Mulder," Dr. Bennet reached his hand out to Mulder and they shook. "I'm glad to see you alive."  
  
"I didn't want to stick you with the bill for a lost snowcat," Mulder joked as he took off his jacket.   
  
"Well, we've got a bunk ready for you but Jackie insists you need medical attention first," Bennet jutted his chin towards Dr. Jones-Nguyen and Jones-Nguyen rolled her eyes at Bennet's comment. "The mess is closed right now from breakfast but there's two plates of real food waiting when you're done your look over."  
  
"I can take Agent Scully first while Agent Mulder gets some something to eat," Jones-Nguyen told the men. "Can you walk, Agent Scully?"  
  
"Dr. Jones-"  
  
"Just call me Jackie," she cut her off.  
  
"I'm Dana," Scully told her.  
  
"Okay, Dana, can you walk?" Jackie asked again.  
  
Scully nodded and followed Jackie toward the medical wing of the Red Shed before she gave a wondering glance over her shoulder as Mulder was being escorted to the cafeteria. She caught his eye as he was glancing back to her and somehow she understood they would try to catch up later.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Dr. Jackie Jones-Nguyen took Scully into the medical exam room and had her put on a gown sit on the bed for a full examination. When the doctor entered the exam room she was now in scrubs with a stethescope around her neck and a white lab coat on. The white walls with speckled green and instruments looked like every other doctor's office Scully had visited in Washington.   
  
If it wasn't for the radio playing top 40 hits over the intercom, Scully might actually think she was anywhere but an Australian station.   
  
"Dana, let's start with your vitals," Jackie instructed. "I'll draw some blood and do a pelvic exam at the end."  
  
"Is that necessary?" Scully asked.  
  
"I could do it or you could do one on the FBI books when you get back," Jackie pointed out and Scully relented. "At least you get to take my notes with you."  
  
They went through the exercise to check her breathing, pulse, skin, pupils, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry. Jackie took four vials of blood and labeled them all as DS1998 and told her she could take them back to DC with her for a full work up.   
  
"Your partner told us some pretty tall tales. Something about aliens kidnapping you after a bee sting," Jackie said as Scully laid down for the internal exam. She winced visibly when a gloved hand began checking her fallopian tubes. The speculum came out and Jackie put her hands on Scully's knees. "All done. Aside from some bruising, you don't appear to be carrying an alien baby."  
  
"I'm... barren," Scully said slowly as she sat up and Jackie's face reflected one of heartbroken understanding. "So that's not a worry for me anyway."  
  
"Agent Mulder said.... Dana I'm really sorry I said that, I'm so sorry," Jackie put her hand on Scully's. "He said they were turning you into a pod to birth new alien life and we gave him a snowcat because one of our guys down here knows Charles Burks and Chuck vouched for him. But you have to understand, we've heard everything down here and your partner sounded crazy."  
  
Scully nodded. "It is crazy."  
  
Jackie patted her hand and left the exam room for Scully to get dressed. She pulled her long johns and snowpants back on under her examination gown before donning her tank top and long sleeved shirt.   
  
"I think we might be able to get you some proper grundies and trousers," Jackie offered when she came back into the exam room.  
  
Scully folded her arms under her breasts. "I would really appreciate that."  
  
There was a knock at the door and Mulder stood there with his panic face. "Everything okay?"  
  
"She's fit so far," Jackie said and placed a hand on Scully's shoulder. "Now Agent Mulder, why don't you get one of those gowns on and I'll take a look at that gash on your head and see if you've got anything else we need to worry about."  
  
When Scully exited the exam room, Dr. Bennet was waiting for her.   
  
"Jackie said you might want to get a new kit on and have a bite," he offered warmly.   
  
Dr. Bennet was in his mid-forties also and had a mop of blonde hair that looked like it belonged on a man who surfed, not on a scientist in the Antarctic. The tall doctor had a trim but toned frame and he placed a hand on Scully's lower back as he escorted her toward the mess hall. What Scully noted about everyone there was they were all in very casual clothing. Cargo pants or hospital scrubs, long sleeved shirts with or without T-shirts over top and some were in fleece pull overs. For a science and exploration station, they certainly rivaled that of a ski lodge and Scully told him as such when they were sitting down in the empty cafeteria.  
  
"We've heard that before," Dr. Bennet told her. "We try to be hospitable to anyone who makes it out here but also, you can't be a raging ocker if you're trapped inside with fifty other people for months on end. So, I'll get you fed then show you to where you'll be bunking up for the night."  
  
"Raging what?" Scully shook her head. "Grundies?"  
  
"Grundies are your underwear, ocker is a bloke who's just a little too Aussie," Bennet explained. "Loud, drinks too much, gets into fisticuffs."  
  
Scully nodded knowingly and wondered how such venacular was going to wash over on Mulder or if he would pick it up right away.   
  
Food was scrambled eggs, cubed hash browns, sausages and one pancake. Normally a breakfast for Scully constituted half a grapefruit and a poached egg but after the ordeal she just went through, she wouldn't worry about a heavy meal. She was alive. Her waistline could worry about itself for a few days.  
  
"For the night?" Scully repeated as she ate her eggs. They were real eggs made with milk and cheese and they tasted devine. "I'm sorry, but we need to get back to DC."  
  
"And you'll be able to do that Agent Scully as soon as the storm passes," Bennet replied. "Just because you can't see it out there doesn't mean there isn't one. You're in the middle of an Antarctic winter. Your boss has to understand you might miss a day."  
  
"It's not that," Scully replied as she pushed her food away from her. "I have some blood samples that need testing. The sooner I can get them under a microscope the better."  
  
Dr. Bennet pushed her plate back in front of her and they had a stare-down until Scully picked up her fork again.   
  
"We'll be happy to store them in our lab until you need to head out or we can run them through whatever and forward on the information to Washington but it is what it is," Dr. Bennet said matter of factly.   
  
Mulder joined them and sat down next to Scully on her side of the bench. He stabbed her sausage with her fork and took a healthy bite before holding it out to her. She shook her head. Breakfast sausage was never her favourite and he knew that.   
  
"Eat your pancake Scully, they're really good," Mulder encouraged.  
  
A young man approached in a T-shirt with a lanyard around his neck and held out an electronic key. "Dr. Bennet, the dongas are ready."  
  
"Thanks Tanner," Dr. Bennet said and took the key card from the young man.  
  
Scully ate what she could of her breakfast and drank all of the water that was there. Mulder finished what she didn't eat and paid no attention as Dr. Bennet watched them share her utensils.   
  
Toward the other end of the Red Shed were the dongas, or bedrooms, that housed those who worked there. What Dr. Bennet explained was that every attempt was made to accomodate those expiditioners whose jobs require shiftwork, or who have mandated periods of rest required by law such as the pilots that would be flying them out of there. Each bedroom was private with a double bed and each bathroom was shared by three rooms. As they stood at the end of the hallway Dr. Bennet dropped his voice to a whisper.   
  
"No one spends time in their rooms during the day unless they're sleeping. It's a quiet area and therefore, if you're up and about, please make your way to the lounge," he instructed. "Tanner set up a room for you. There's toiletries and new kit for you Agent Scully."  
  
Scully felt exhausted from the strain after a long night and her lips were chapped. She wanted to slather her body in lotion after soaking in a hot tub however she understood that showers at stations such as Casey were limited to three minutes for any and all who lived there. Pampering herself would have to wait.   
  
"I was getting fond of the long johns," Mulder teased and Scully nudged him with her elbow.   
  
"Thank you Dr. Bennet," Scully said as she took the key card.   
  
"You're in room 203," Bennet instructed. "I'll be at the lounge if you need me."  
  
Inside the room was a double bed made up for two, toiletries kit for each of them with soap, shampoo, body lotion, toothpaste, and toothbrushes, and a change of clothes for Scully.   
  
Instructions for the shower were inside the bathroom and Scully decided to go first, wetting her head, then shampooing quickly before turning the water back on to rinse it out. When she exited the shower with a towel wrapped around her, Mulder was leaning against the sink with his arms crossed and holding his own towel and brushing his teeth.   
  
"Mulder!" Scully said as she touched the towel where it was tucked in. "What are you doing in here?"  
  
"Waiting for my turn for the shower," he said matter of factly and spit into the sink.   
  
With bravado, Mulder began to strip down. Out of habit, she turned her back slightly to him and picked up the small bottle of lotion as though the ingredients were suddenly interesting. She caught a glimpse of his naked backside as he entered the shower and a smirk on his face before he closed the door. The wall hair dryer mimicked something she might see on a motel wall with low voltage as not to drain the resources but more effective than the vent on the snowcat. Scully tried but failed to replicate a more smoothed out hairstyle she normally wore for work. It probably didn't matter but she tried anyway.   
  
Donning her underpants, a sports bra and her long johns again, she found the bed to be more than adequate for size for them to share. It was better than a small cot and wider than the back of the snowcat but in the end, it was still forced bed sharing. Their private room was another incident of forced accomodations however this time they wouldn't lie in bed and feigning sleep as a way of avoiding the obvious discomfort of unresolved sexual tension.  
  
When they returned to DC she could hide away in her apartment, she could ask for a transfer or go be a doctor. Right now, there was no hiding and that made her anxious at what could come of such a discussion. Her mind went through the possibilites of where it could lead.   
  
When Mulder finished his shower, he found her lying in the bed with her back to him, breathing slowly.  
  
"Scully?" Mulder called as he climbed in behind her.   
  
"I'm not sleeping yet," she said as she rolled over in the bed to face him.  
  
Mulder slid across the bed towards her. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm trying to rationalize what happened," she admitted as she reached her hands out to his chest.   
  
Mulder placed a kiss on her forehead and her eyes closed at his touch. "I thought we weren't going to do that."  
  
"We had sex in a snowcat," she said.  
  
"I remember," he teased.  
  
"Was it out of necessity?" she asked him. "Or hormones getting the better of us?"  
  
Mulder cleared his throat. "Can't we have both reasons and still be who we are?"  
  
"Mulder, I don't need something from you that you can't give me," she told him. "I don't know what I can give at this point either."  
  
Mulder's heart sank a little. "I see."  
  
She leaned into his face and kissed him. His mouth opened to hers but he didn't lean in to her or put much effort into kissing her back. She pulled away and they shared a moment of silent contemplation.  
  
"What do you want, Mulder?" she asked in an attempt for him to see the larger picture.   
  
"I want to prove what's happened to you and thousands of others isn't a coincidence of lights in the sky. I want to bring men to justice who have orchestrated this conspiracy and I want to find my sister," he said as he moved his hand up her thigh to rest on her hip.  
  
"I want these things too," she agreed.  
  
"I want you," he confessed as he rubbed his thumb across the waffle material of her long johns. "Again. Properly and without the guise of some life saving moment."  
  
A beat passed between them as she let his confession wash over her.   
  
"Have I misjudged what happened?" he asked as he started to pull his hand away.  
  
Scully laced her fingers through his and pulled his hand up to her mouth. She kissed his fingertips. "Then what, Mulder?"  
  
"Then... We continue to search for truths that have been kept from us," he bargained.   
  
Scully didn't need another grand declaration from Mulder. He made that speech to her already in his hallway. She was convinved to fight the good fight along with him, she wouldn't leave him. Maybe he hoped she would in the chance that they could try for something outside of their work, but that was all they knew of each other. The downtime they spent together was usually a smokescreen for work but turned into other things lately. She cooked dinner while they went over case notes at her apartment and eventually that turned into watching a movie on her couch. A friendship had come out of this forced partnership and she was comfortable with that. If they continued this night toward what Mulder wanted, that ease of frienship might dissipate. She almost resented him for asking for it.   
  
"I don't want to lose what we've fought for," she told him.  
  
"Then we won't," he promised and pressed his mouth to hers.   
  
Scully opened her lips and allowed his tongue to play. He kissed her for all he was worth, for every moment he wanted to when she told him his paranormal theories were wrong when the answers were staring them right in the face. He kissed her with the passion of a man who chased after little grey men and shouted that the skies were falling and the appreciation that she always believed in him.   
  
Mulder moved on top of her and she spread her legs to allow him to rest more comfortably. She moved her hands up his bare back and appreciated the heat of his body. The kiss broke when he hooked his arms underneath hers and smiled at her.   
  
The room was dark except for a small table light on the bed side table and they could hear the sounds of doors closing up and down the hallways. This was not her bed or his couch. There was no soft leather underneath her with that ugly afghan blanket near her head. It would be a lie to say she hadn't imagined it before but she wouldn't admit that to anyone, not even her priest. She confessed a lot to him prior to her cancer and during the dark days she thought would be her last. She didn't discuss the regrets of never moving forward with Mulder because at the time, they were just lustful thoughts she fought away not the true embers burning inside her she wanted to ignite.  
  
Mulder kissed her cheeks and then worked his way down her neck and along her collar bone. He pushed the edge of her sports bra up and she maneuvered it over her head without having to push him off of her. If there was one thing that could be said about them in bed together is that it worked. It was almost regrettable how well.   
  
"No hickeys," she admonished when his teeth nipped at the skin on her shoulder.   
  
"But how will you remember this happened otherwise?" Mulder murmured as his mouth traveled to the flesh of her breast. He took her coral nipple in his mouth and dragged his teeth gently as it popped out of his mouth. "You need some kind of reminder."  
  
Scully thread her hands through his hair and sighed. He was persistent. "No hickeys."  
  
Mulder ran his tongue along the skin under each breast as his left hand made quick work of massaging her flesh.   
  
Of course he would be good at this, she thought. Of course he would pay attention to the ticklish spots on her ribs that went right to her centre. It was almost enough to make her angry.   
  
Scully reached between them to push the long johns he had on down but her arms couldn't reach that far. She grunted in frustration.  
  
"Relax, Scully," Mulder encouraged as he pushed her hands on either side of her head into the pillow. He wiggled his body on top of hers to move the blankets off of them and he smiled. "You'll have your turn."  
  
His smugness was infuriating. She was about to push him off of her and tell him to find another place to nap except his mouth was now travelling down her abdomen while his hands held hers down on the bed. She had a feeling she was about to discover what a man with an oral fixation and a need to prove himself was like in bed.   
  
Mulder released her hands and began to make quick work of her long johns. They fell to the floor next to her bra.   
  
"Um..." Scully spoke up and Mulder's hands on the waistband of her underwear stopped. Maybe letting him taste her everywhere would be a bad idea. Maybe him having that knowledge of her would only make things worse. "You don't..."  
  
"I do," he insisted as he pulled her underpants off. "Unless you don't like that kind of thing and then I need to explain to you why you should."  
  
"I do like that sort of thing, usually," she stated haughtily and she had the urge to cross her arms across her torso as though they were arguing science and eye witness reports.   
  
"I might do it the way you like it," Mulder said as his mouth moved past her naval. He placed a kiss below her belly button and his eyes focused on the trimmed hairs at her sex. "I have to say, I'm a little surprised the carpet matches the drapes."  
  
"Mulder!" she admonished and tried to push him off of her. He was, unfortunately or thankfully, not moving.  
  
"I mean, I saw pictures of you as a kid," he mused. "I knew you were a redhead as a little girl but I thought maybe..."  
  
"You're a pervert," she berated with a smile and he chuckled low at her.   
  
Mulder kissed along her thigh and hips. He was moving his mouth across her body and now she longed for the connection to be kissed and tasted. His thumbs moved to the lips of her sex and she sighed at the contact. She felt swollen and ready for him and she had a feeling he would drag this out longer than the almost kiss in his hallway.   
  
Scully looked up to the ceiling of their small room and then down to where Mulder was actually studying her.   
  
"It's just a vagina," Scully told him.  
  
Mulder made a face like she had told him she was "just" his work partner. "Nothing about you is just anything to me."  
  
Statements like those made her heart ache a little that they couldn't seem to have more of what this was. More tenderness and actual love making. She cursed conspiracies, syndicates, and all the men who plotted against them uncovering truths.   
  
His tongue licked up her centre and her breath came out in a jagged huff. Such little contact felt so good.  
  
"And you should know, from a man who has seen a lot of porn," Mulder started and she clucked her tongue at him. "Well if I'm being honest here Scully... You have a beautiful pussy."  
  
"Mulder!" she rebuked but couldn't help the embarrassed laughter that escaped her. "You're so crude!"  
  
"I'm speaking as a man," he told her. "You should know that everything about you really is beautiful. Wondrous to behold. From every angle."  
  
"I really need you to stop talking," Scully whispered and threw an arm across her face.   
  
The praise about her appearance wasn't one she was accustomed to, especially hearing such a compliment on that part of her anatomy.  
  
"Is it because I called it a pussy?" he asked before licking her again. He began lapping her like an ice cream cone and the flavour of Scully was one he couldn't get enough of. His thumbs parted her lips and his tongue circled the bundle of nerves at her centre.   
  
"Oh god!" she cried out and covered her mouth. "Sorry."  
  
His mouth repeated his actions and she pulled a pillow over her face to muffle the sounds of her pleasure. Mulder grew harder at each tremor and his want for her only grew. This was what he imagined when she imagined raining sleeping bags. Having her underneath him, bringing her pleasure and discovering every inch of her to be as delicious as he fantasized all these years.  
  
Her orgasm was building and he could feel her swelling against his mouth. Mulder trust two thick fingers inside of her and she held the pillow into her mouth as she screamed through her orgasm. Her back arched and her toes curled. The release was exquisite and she immediately thought they should hide their lives away down in Antarctica, working for Casey Station and doing this on their down time.  
  
Mulder peppered kisses along her thigh and rested his head on her abdomen. Her fingers ran though his hair as she came down from the intensity and overwhelming release.   
  
"Scully?" he started and she hummed underneath him in response. "Why can't I call it a pussy?"  
  
"Mulder shut up," she scolded and they laughed as he moved off of her and lied on his side against her. He shed his remaining clothing and they took a moment to study one another. The human body, in a state of desire, was a beautiful thing.  
  
"Would you prefer a more clinical term?" he asked.   
  
His erection was thick and ready for her against her leg and she reached her hand down to give him a slow stroke. Mulder caught her wrist and pulled her hand away.   
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"I don't want this to be over before the main event," he told her.  
  
"That could be the main event," she countered and Mulder shook his head. "Why not?"  
  
"I want it all, if we're going to make love just this once, I want it all," he confessed and her cheeks flushed. "Just give me a minute."  
  
Mulder willed his body to calm down but it was difficult when she was looking at him with such fascination bordering on lechery. It was delightful to witness and he studied her face in an attempt to commit every inflection to memory.   
  
Scully pushed Mulder onto his back and sat her bottom on his thighs. Mulder watched in rapt fascination as she took his cock in her hand and stroked up and down.   
  
"Do you need a countdown from 60?" she teased.   
  
Mulder shook his head and she maneuvered her bottom towards his knees as she bent over to take his dick inside her mouth.   
  
"Fuuuuuuuuck," he groaned and it was his turn to cover his mouth.   
  
They had to remember the walls weren't cement and possibly they were giving anyone else in the dorms an audio show.   
  
Scully swirled her tongue around the head and took him half way down before bobbing up and repeating the action. Her mouth gradually moved slower down his cock until his bulbous head was at the back of her throat. It felt just like penetrating her, slow and gradual, while exquisite and her suction was just as tight.   
  
"You.... Are...." Mulder struggled. "Way too.... Fuuuuuck."  
  
While her mouth moved up and down, she took his testicles in hand and gave them a soft squeeze.  
  
"Oh shit," Mulder groaned.  
  
Scully pulled her mouth off and wiped at her lip with the back of her hand. "You're far too loud for this to happen here."  
  
"Scully you can't blame a man for wondering for years, then having that fantasy fulfilled suddenly and not being able to voice how he feels," he explained.   
  
She grabbed a pillow from the bed and pushed it onto his face. "Yell into that or shut up."  
  
Mulder's laugh was cut off when her mouth took him in again. He muffled every moan and dirty thought he had about Scully into the pillow but she could make out the gist of what he was saying. He really was a pervert.   
  
As he felt he was getting close he tossed the pillow aside, pulled her away from his cock and flipped her onto her back so that her head was now at the foot of the bed. Scully recognized half of that maneuver from the FBI training in self defense and before she could analyze it any further he was pushing himself inside of her.   
  
"Oh fuck me," she sighed as he inched his way in. 

  
"I'm trying," he muttered and she laughed. Mulder shook his head. "Oh no, no no, no laughing."  
  
Scully nodded. The contraction of the abdomen muscles during laughter or coughing usually contracted the internal muscles of the vaginal walls.   
  
Once he was pushed all the way inside he paused. "I don't have a condom on."  
  
"It's okay," Scully told him. "This kind of mess is fine."  
  
There was a pause as they realized the result of any union wouldn't grow into a child and Mulder pressed his face into his shoulder.   
  
Scully took his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. "Mulder."  
  
He looked down at her underneath him and he nodded. Don't get sad about babies you can't make, Mulder, he admonished himself. You can worry about that another day.   
  
Scully pulled his face to hers and they kissed slow and deep as her walls adjusted to accommodate him. She felt embarrassingly wet and he was grateful to feel her against his skin. He also didn't appreciate that his endurance might be quicker and he tried to distract himself with other things but it was difficult when she was there. Just her naked presence and being able to touch her.   
  
"You good?" he asked and she nodded.   
  
Mulder pulled out and pushed back into her. Her throat let out a mewl and he did it again. He kept his pace slow and deliberate in hopes that the friction would help build an orgasm for Scully. She pushed her heels into the bed and thrust her hips up towards his to create a rhythm.  
  
Their tempo quickened and he heard a sound come from her that he could only describe as her readiness to go over the edge.   
  
"Come on Scully," he urged and he pushed into her harder and faster.  
  
She reached between them to touch the swollen flesh at her sex as she used her own juices to find her release. "Oh God!"  
  
Her body went taught and she stretched out underneath him while the neurons fired and her body released into nirvana. Mulder shouted her name and his cock emptied inside of her like a canon firing off a powerful shot.   
  
Scully ran her hands on his back and he stayed inside of her as his cock slowly softened. Their fluids dripped down underneath her and she looked up to see it on his face. This was a mistake. They shouldn't have done this. They couldn't possibly go back now.   
  
She pushed him off of her and she ran into the bathroom off their room.   
  
Mulder laid down next to the wet spot they had created. He understood the problem. This was the wrong decision and the wrong step to make. When they made it back to DC they wouldn't be able to linger on the sex or feelings that bubbled up from actually finally experiencing the forbidden fruit. His eyes were opened like Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

The guise of survival was easier before he knew what this was. It would be an uncomfortable year before they faced what they had done and Mulder only knew how to react by reacting poorly.


End file.
